TURDUS MERULA. 265 



love of tyranny over inoffensive creatures, or, what is worse, 

 mere wanton destruction. 



The blackbird, like the mavis, is an early breeder, beginning 

 in March, sometimes in January. The nest is similar to the 

 rest of the thrushes, but has more clay or mud in its com- 

 position. It is 6 J by 5 inches outside, and 3 J by 3 inches inside, 

 also lined with fine dry grass ; the eggs five, sometimes six, 

 bluish-green, spotted with brown, found in all situations — from 

 a heap of pease sticks on the ground to the top of a wall, but 

 usually in a hedge, bush, or spruce fir. It has often three 

 broods in the year. Mr Blyth, in the Naturalist, states that a 

 " pair built four successive nests upon the island in St James' 

 Park, and reared seventeen young ones — the three first broods 

 were five each, the last, two ; and that another pair raised three 

 broods one year in a garden near his residence." But I never 

 knew them rear more than two broods in one year and in the 

 same nest. Having cause to be daily at Abbey Park, during 

 alterations — untenanted for years ; the policies were overgrown 

 with shrubbery, a perfect home for the blackbird and the mavis 

 — I had ample opportunity of observing their habits. In the 

 spring almost every holly, yew, and thorn bush had a nest. In 

 a bunch of boxwood at the disused front door a mavis was 

 making her's when the masons began to break out another 

 front door ; and as the windows of the old schoolrooms were 

 broken, the inside of the building was swarming with birds' 

 nests as well as the shrubbery. I got a blackbird's nest with 

 eggs on a bookshelf, another with young in a press, another on 

 a chimney shelf, and a fourth in a bedroom grate ; besides 

 others in every conceivable situation in the playground square 

 and the verandah outside — one in a hole where a brick was out, 

 another on an old crate, a third in an old basket, and a fourth 

 in the scraped-out hollow on the grass, on the drying-green, the 

 young of which were gobbled up by a dog. The old true story 

 of the balance of Nature ; if the boys were not to be in the 

 schoolroom the birds would — for " when the cat is away the 

 mice will play," as they are now doing in the fields when the 

 owls are away. The young of two of them flew in the middle 

 of May, and were again sitting on eggs in the same nest in the 

 beginning of June ; nearly all the rest were harried or deserted 

 during the alterations. One rebuilt in the hole where I had 

 torn out a joist, and one day as I stood within six feet watching 

 her pressing in the finishing layer with her bill, on seeing me 

 she gave one peculiar scream, flew out of the room, and never 



